Resolution
by DaughteroftheOneTrueKing
Summary: Neville decides to act


**Hey everyone! I hope you're not getting fed up with all my stories? At least I usually try new stuff :) This story is my drabble for round 4 of The Houses Competition, where I am in the Charms position on the Lions team. The drabble task this round is to take from a list of given songs and use them as inspiration. Most of them were Disney songs, which is fun. I chose "Go The Distance" from the movie Hercules, which in my opinion is a great movie that is criminally underrated, especially the songs. The muses make most of them, but this one has always been close to me, because I sometimes feel like Herc, out of place in the regular world. I hope I can do justice to this song.**

**Word Count: 840**

Neville Longbottom had never been exactly comfortable at Hogwarts, and he knew it was mostly his own fault. He was clumsy, knocking things over and dropping things all the time. He was forgetful and never was able to remember things he'd learned only a few days prior. His mastery of spells was mediocre at best, and abysmal more often than not. Mostly this was due to his teachers - they were usually well meaning - who told him that he should stop being so ridiculous and grow up.

Things had changed a bit when he had gotten a new wand last year. Until then, he'd been using his father's wand from when he'd attended Hogwarts. While it had been a good wand, it had never worked properly for him. When his grandmother had taken him to get on of his own, Ollivander had seemed quite displeased when he'd been informed of his use of a secondhand wand.

"You will never get the best results with another's wand," he'd reprimanded. "You should have gotten your own wand. After all, the wand chooses the wizard."

His new wand worked quite a bit better than the old one ever had, but he still had trouble mastering spells. It took him several tries before he could even get the start of a spell, and much longer before he felt that he had mastered it enough to use it properly.

This year promised to be worse than others. As well as Snape, his usual tormentor, there were two new teachers. Neville remembered Harry mentioning them as being in the Astronomy Tower the night Dumbledore had been killed. They would be teaching Muggle Studies and Defence Against the Dark Art's classes, respectively. The latter was because of Snape's underserved promotion to Headmaster, and the former due to the disappearance of the previous teacher, whom Neville hadn't known.

As he sat at breakfast one morning, Neville thought about all of this. He wanted so much to break out of the rut he had been in since his first year and do something worthwhile. He wanted people to fit in with, and who wouldn't treat him like the butt of their jokes.

He was so distracted by his thoughts that he almost didn't notice Ginny Weasley sit next to him. Only when she said, "Morning, Neville," did he realize he was not alone.

"Oh, hey," he said, twirling a spoon unknowingly through his bowl of cereal. "Morning, Gin."

She gave him a curious look before she grabbed a plate and filled it. "You didn't even notice me when I got here. Is something wrong?"

Neville almost wanted to laugh. "'Is something wrong?' Everything is wrong, Ginny! Harry, Ron, and Hermione have disappeared, and just when we need them the most. Dumbledore is dead. Snape's Headmaster, and in addition, we have two more Death Eaters, all three of whom wouldn't hesitate to cast any number of Dark curses on us!"

He hadn't meant to lash out at Ginny, but all his thoughts had been too chaotic, and he'd spoken before he could stop himself. Immediately, he felt ashamed. "I'm sorry."

Ginny gave him a shocked look. "Whoa, Neville, I never thought you had that in you." She was silent for a moment before she said, "I know things are crappy right now, but Luna and I think we've come up with an idea to help keep everyone's spirits up."

Neville raised an eyebrow. "What is it? If Luna came up with it-"

"We thought we could restart Dumbledore's Army," Ginny interrupted. She stared at him, seeming pleased with his dumbstruck expression.

"What?" he questioned. "But- the Carrows! You heard what Snape said at the Opening Feast! 'Any rule-breaking will be handled by the Carrows.' Do they look like the sort to just give detentions or lines?"

Ginny waved this off dismissively. "So what? We have our coins. Hermione gave me the controlling coin before they had to leave, so we'll be able to set meetings. We'll just encourage people to be extra-careful. We don't want anyone to be hurt, but we just want to keep up morale."

Neville took a moment before he said anything. Certainly restarting Dumbledore's Army would help keep everyone's spirits up, but would it be safe? Certainly not. But then again, no one was really safe anymore.

"All right," Neville decided. "Let's do it. When do you want to try and have the first meeting?"

"Excellent!" Ginny exclaimed and rushed into a litany of plans and ideas for things they could do. As she spoke, Neville thought, _this might not be a good idea, but I know we can at least help everyone stay positive. _

If there was one place he'd ever fit in, it was in the meetings at Dumbledore's Army. Under Harry's instructions, he had mastered spells that had confounded him for years. In the year that they had been disbanded, Neville had missed that greatly.

He knew he could help the group learn to keep themselves safe. He could help them go the distance.


End file.
